In this season of vast public carelessness, political Toms and Daisys are trashing civic life, making messes and moving on. And there are no large ideas commensurate with, and capable of at least explaining, the institutional damage being done.

Fri, Aug 01, 2003

If you thought the belly-baring thing was bad enough, take a good look at the sartorial depths to which fashion has now sunk. The Los
Angeles Times this week declared it "the summer of the pelvic bone." Last year's already obscene low-riders have gone the way of high-water polyester pants.

The global war on terror has scored huge successes thus far. Pakistan, once an open supporter of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, has done an abrupt about face and now cooperates with the United States in tracking and capturing Al Qaeda.

For political spectators, it just doesn't get any better than
this. The most populous state in the nation -- with a reputation for setting political trends -- will hold an election this fall to potentially recall their arrogant and universally unpopular governor, Gray Davis.

Thu, Jul 31, 2003

In much of the liberal media, large-scale confrontations between
police and people who are breaking the law are usually reported in one of two ways. Either the police used "excessive force" or they "let the situation get out of hand."

It is a truism in politics that around 40 percent of Republicans will always vote for a Republican presidential candidate and about the same percentage of Democrats will vote for their party's candidate.

Hughes and 23 other bishops have urged the convention not to do what it probably will do -- approve the election by New Hampshire Episcopalians of a male bishop who is in a 13-year relationship with another man, and approve a rite for blessing same-sex unions.

A massive new study from Berkeley scientists at has found that political liberals have the following qualities in abundance: Cowardice and appeasement, Comfort with confusion and ignorance, Recklessness, Indecisiveness and similar cognitive defects, and Terror mismanagement

A few weeks ago, I defended Mel Gibson's upcoming movie, "The Passion," against unwarranted criticism. After having had the privilege of attending a private screening of the movie, I am even more convinced of its value.

Whose side are you on? It is the
question that many Republicans have been afraid to ask. It is the same
question that Ann Coulter has notoriously asked and answered in her current best-selling book, "Treason."

Wissam al Zahawie, the Iraqi official whom the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says went on a "trade mission" to uranium-exporting Niger in 1999, had a record of promoting resentment against America and Israel and of making Iraq's case for building a nuclear bomb.

When did America's most popular sport turn fascist? The National
Football League wielded its dictatorial powers with glee on July 25, when it fined Detroit Lions president Matt Millen $200,000 for failing to interview a black candidate for the team's vacant head-coaching position.

Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. Republicans
would do well to remember this old adage as they face the prospect of a
successful effort to recall California Democrat Gov. Gray Davis in a special election on Oct. 7.

Something about the camera - the intrusion of media into human affairs - changes everything. Not just the reality, but the spirit and soul of people and events. Why else is there so much controversy about cameras in courtrooms?

If the Democrats start overreaching their way to investigations over, say, a 16-word misstatement in Bush's last State of the Union address, or the 9-11 disclosures, they will probably spark a backlash similar to the one against congressional Republicans that saved President Clinton from possible removal from office.

Say what you want about The New York Times, but it still makes more news than any other paper in the United States. By this, I don't mean in the sense of printing the news, as other papers do, but rather in the sense of news about the Times itself. Consider these recent items that made
national news.

With some blind partisans mourning what one leading Democrat, Congressman Charlie Rangel, called an “assassination” of Saddam’s sadistic sons, it is only appropriate that we take a moment to eulogize the not-so-dearly departed.

Ernie and Pat Bechler, who testified at the recent congressional hearings on ephedra, blame the herbal stimulant for the death of their son, Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler, during spring training last February.

Maybe we should give an award for mangled quotation of the year. Misquotations are becoming a regular feature of journalism and politics, partly out of carelessness but mostly because anything-goes partisanship so deeply afflicts our discourse.

Edward Klein, author and editor, wrote for the current issue of Vanity Fair a story that challenged the faith in the matter of John F. Kennedy Jr. and his storybook wife, dead somewhere off Martha's Vineyard after crashing into the water on his private airplane four years ago.